Glowing tributes were paid to the poet from Allahabad, Harivanshrai Bachchan, at the Smaran Sahitya Sabha, in Allahabad Museum. Here’s a report by Farha.

This Saturday (Jan 23) was enlightened by the remembrances of the poet Harivanshrai Bachchan, at Smaran Sahitya Sabha, in Allahabad Museum. The organiser of the event was the Lab Academia team, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A). It was a happy mix of technology, literature and culture.

The event flowed in a poetic manner. Prof. Somenath Biswas, the director of IIIT-A was the chief guest of the event and many students from IIIT-A followed it. Alongside invited speakers, Prof. Ali Ahmad Fatmi (HoD, Urdu Dept.), Prof. Mushtak Ali (former HoD, Hindi Dept.) and Prof. Neelam Saram Gaur from English Department of Allahabad University graced the event.

Prof. Fazil Hashmi (Thakur Har Narayan Singh Degree College) and Prof. Anupam (CMP Degree College) and Dr. Ashraf Ali Beg, Assistant Director, All India Radio, Agra, Dr. Vijayshree Tiwari, Dr. Madhvendra Mishra from IIIT-A were also present.

Informative talks by many professors and the poets were the main attraction. The latter befittingly  highlighted the importance of the event with their poems.

Prof Biswas said, “As Allahabad is the place of literature, it is natural to remember the Bachchan family. It gives me immense pleasure to say that a team of Lab Academia from our institute has well understood this and organised this event. And I am pretty sure that this event will foster strong links between literature and technology”.

Prof Fatmi said that Bachchan was a romantic poet. Also, he was the part and parcel of that ideology of Allahabad University where even an English professor was presenting his arts with the help of Hindi and Urdu. Dr. Hashmi dwelled on the relation of Bachchan with the Allahabad. On the other hand, Beg talked about the personality of the poet, Bachchan. Prof Gaur wonderfully presented the memories of the connections of Bachchan with the English department. Dr. Anand had presented the realities of the life of Bachchan along with his experiences in his poems. From an autobiography of Bachchan Prof Ali depicted his life and times and spoke on his literary contribution.

On this occasion, poems were recited and a poetry competition was also organised, wherein 21 poets participated. 1st winner was bagged by Om Prakash, 2nd prize went to Kuldeep Kumar whereas the 3rd prize was won by Shizra Jafri. All the winners were felicitated by the director, IIIT-A.

At the beginning, the guests were invited by Dr. Sunil Gupta, deputy curator (Allahabad Museum), and Preetam Suman (Founder, Lab Academia). The programme was hosted by Arati Gupta and Utkarsh Raj. On this occasion Dr. Harimohan Malviya, Asst. Prof. Sana Absar (Hamidia Degree College), Dr. Shaista Ishad and Pallavi Gupta (Faculty, MNNIT), Vaibhav Patel, and Sachidanand along with a bunch of students from IIIT-A, Allahabad University and Hamidia Degree College were present to grace the event.

The founder of the Lab Academia, Farha Naz, Danish Faizan, Preetam Suman and Dr. Sanju Mishra jointly organised this literary event with Allahabad Museum. Most of the team members of Lab Academia are students or employees of IIIT-A. The group was mind boggling and gave the feeling that these institutes and labs really contribute to the society in many ways.

Pix and Text by Autor

Farhaa Naz

Farha Naz is the editor of Roses and Rhymes. She is MBA in HR. She works at IIIT-A, and is the founder of Lab Academia- Research and Development Centre. She has published and presented research papers in many International journals and at conferences. She contributes to various web portals, newspapers, magazines, and in several creative writing websites. She dons many hats of a writer, translator, freelancer web content writer and blogger.

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